How Brazil Aims for Gold in Reliability: From Past Blackouts to Preparedness for the 2016 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games

摘要

Nearly every bulk power system has experienced major failures at some point in its history. These major failures, or blackouts, interrupt large amounts of load for periods of between several hours and several days and can cost up to several hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars. Although these events have dreadful human and economic consequences, they can also be important in paving the way toward improved system reliability. The valuable lessons learned from major failures in electric systems lead to significant improvements in procedures to prevent and, when necessary, mitigate future outages.